Decoy

ABSTRACT

A goose decoy comprising a form upon which is mounted a color photoreproduction of an actual goose.

TJnited States Patent 1 Tryon 1 Jan. 2, 1973 54 DECOY 3,528,189 9/1970Lilley,.lr. ..43/42.33 1,062,713 5 NH J h ..43 3 1 Invent Ned W"Kemlslandchester 2,933,847 411960 n/42.43 Md.21619 3,186,120 6/1965Layson ..43 2

[22] Filed: Dec'311970 Primary Examiner-Warner H. Camp [21] Appl. No.:103,147 Attorney-Frank P. Cyr

52 us. c1 ..43 3 [57] ABSTRACT [51] lnt.Cl. ..A01m 31/06 A goose decoycomprising a form upon which is [58] Field of Search ..43/2,3,42.33mounted a color photoreproduction of an actual goose. [56] ReferencesCited 3 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures UNITED STATES PATENTS l,298,36l 3/1919Levy ....43/3

IPATENTEDJMZ mm FIG.

INVENTOR NED A. TRYON 1 DECOY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION As is wellknown, the hunter resorts to many ways to lure the prey to a locationsufficiently close to himself to thus enable him to use his firearm toeffect a kill of the prey. Such prior devices have included calls, anoise emitting device designed to imitate the vocal utterances of theprey, whereas in other instances, decoys which are designed to simulatethe appearance of the prey are employed and planted or set at designatedareas with the hopes that the prey, in this instance, a goose flyingthereover, will be lured down towards the decoy thinking that the decoyis actually a goose which is at a feeder location. Usually, when decoysare deployed in an area, some of the decoys are used to depict a gooseor duck sitting on the water or land, whereas in other instances, thedecoys are used to show a goose or duck in a feeding position. As can beappreciated, with geese flying overhead, they will be attracted to thedecoys which have been deployed in an area, but as is common knowledge,a goose or duck is a cunning bird and unless the decoys actually depicta real goose or duck, the flying bird may, at recognizing the fakeness,veer off or continue to fly to some outward distance much to the disgustof the hunter. Possibly, one of the main reasons why decoys do notattract the geese or ducks is that when the birds descend and comereasonably close to the decoys, they quickly realize that the decoys arenot actual birds and fly away. Decoys usually are of a silhouettetype orare formed with a full body to simulate a goose or duck. Of course, thesilhouette type decoy is preferable as the same may be easilyconstructed and assembled at site and is usually of the knock-down typewhich makes for the easy storage of the decoy when not in use, whereasthe full body type decoy is cumbersome to handle and also poses someproblems for storage when not in use.

With the above in mind, it is the primary object of the invention toprovide a goose or duck decoy with a means whereby the same will presenta lifelike appearance to the geese or ducks to thus increase theefficiency thereof in luring geese or ducks to a position in closeproximity to the already deployed decoys.

Another object of the invention is to provide a decoy, whether it be oneto simulate a goose or duck, with a true life appearance by applying tothe silhouette a color photoreproduction of the goose or duck to therebyincrease the efficiency thereof in luring flying birds to their place ofdeployment, which is usually in firing range of the hunter.

Another object of the invention is to laminate a color photoreproductionof a goose or duck on to a silhouette type decoy and to so treat thelaminate as to render the same waterproof as well as to afford the sameproper protection from the elements.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a decoyconstructed in accordance with the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the decoy shown in FIG. 1, and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 3- 3 of FIG. 2,looking in the direction of the arrows.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the drawings,there is shown in FIG. 1 thereof a silhouette type goose decoy indicatedgenerally by the reference numeral 10. While the decoy shown in FIG. 1is that of a goose in an upright position, it is obvious that theinventive concept of the present invention can likewise be applied to agoose in a feeding position with his neck extended downwardly tosimulate a feeding goose. Also, while I have shown and will describe thesubject invention as pertaining particularly toa goose decoy, it isobvious the same inventive concept can be applied to form a duck decoy,or for that matter, the principle of the invention can be used in themaking of any kind of a decoy where it is desired to simulate a lifelikeappearance of any game bird.

The wing members comprise a flat one-piece body having the generalconfiguration and silhouette of a pair of wings. A slot 12 extends fromthe forward end of the wing member 11 to substantially midway the same,and a similar slot 13 is formed in the body of the decoy and extendsfrom a position substantially midway the body to the tail end thereof.The aforementioned slots permit for the wing member and the body memberto be joined to one another by the mere sliding of the parts together topermit the parts to assume the position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of thedrawings, which show a completed form for a silhouette type decoy. Sucha structure is clearly shown in prior U.S. Pat..No. 1,473,612, whichpatent is herein incorporated by reference. To stabilize the wingsection 11 onto the body 15 of the decoy, short supporting members 16are nailed or otherwise secured to the body 15 and extend under the wingsection 11 as clearly shown in FIG. 3 of the drawings. An elongatedmember 17 constructed of any suitable material such as metal, wood,plastic, etc., is secured to the body of the decoy as by a rivet orother suitable fastener means 18. Preferably the fastener means 18 isanodized so as to render the same dark in color to more closely resemblethe remainder of the decoy body color.

Thus, there has been described above the manner in which a goose decoyof the silhouette type can be formed with a minimum of parts and easilyassembled for use, and deployed in any manner on land or in shallowwater for attracting geese to their deployed area.

As stated previously, it is the main object of the invention to producea decoy which will appear to be the same as a natural goose, either in astanding or feeding position. To accomplish this, a full size goose inan upright position is mounted following the usual taxidermalpreparations, and likewise a full size goose in a feeder position issimilarly mounted.

Following the formation of the aforesaid mounts, it will be appreciatedthat the mounts display all of the color characteristics of a livingbird. Then, color photographs are taken of each of the mounted birds.The photographs will include side views of the feeder as well as theupright mounted birds. Also, a color photograph is made of one of themounts so as to show the the wing sections of the bird, and thisphotograph of the wing sections can be used for either the feeder orupright decoy. To obtain maximum photoreproduction of the photographedmounts, Kodachrome pictures are made of the parts of the mountsaforesaid and following the taking of the color pictures, a four-colorseparation is made of each color picture. Following this; two layoutsare made, one for the feeder goose and one for the upright positiongoose. Then, these layouts are printed by the use of a known printingmechanism on Scott Vellum Offset paper with Capital lnks, yellow, red,blue and black employed in the printing process. The production of theprinted image of the photographed mounts in the aforesaid mannerproduces an exact photoreproduction of the goose and when the same isapplied to the body and wing portions of the decoy in a manner to bemore fully described hereinafter, a lifelike appearance is given thedecoy which enhances its ability to lure geese to their deployed area.

Following the formation of the printed photographs in the manneraforesaid, the same are applied to the body and wing portions of thesilhouette and held in place thereon by means of a suitable adhesive. Ofcourse, the decoy body and wings will already have been formed to theirdesired contours so that after the printed photographs are appliedthereto the slot 12 in the wings and the slot 13 in the body can then beformed for the purpose set forth above.

After the-printed photographs are applied to the decoy body asaforesaid, any excess printed paper appearing beyond the contour of thedecoy body and wing portions are trimmed off so as to present a printedsurface corresponding to the outline of the decoy parts. As decoys areleft exposed to the elements whether they be deployed in a field or inshallow water, it is desirous that the same be protected from theelements. This is accomplished by pointing the edges of the body andwings with a protective paint, preferably black in color so as to moreclosely harmonize with the color photoreproduction depicted on theprinted paper. The printed paper having thereon the color reproductionis indicated at 19 on the drawings, and referring more particularly toFIG. 3 of the drawings, it will be seen that both sides of the body areprovided with the printed paper whereas only the top surface of the wingportions are shown as having the color paper mounted thereon. To protectthe printed paper from the elements and to likewise dull the appearanceof the color photoreproduction, the decoy parts with the printed paperapplied thereto are subjected as by dipping, spraying and the like, to asolution of wax and polyethylene at a somewhat elevated temperature.

Thus, there has been described an improved manner of forming a decoy andfor the reasons set forth above, it will be evident that the decoy willpresent an appearance almost lifelike, which greatly enhances theability of the decoy to attract their flying species to their deployedarea.

The present invention is not to be limited to the illustrativeembodiment described herein and shown in the annexed drawings sincethere are other and additional modifications that are fully apparent andobvious within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Having described my invention, I claim 1. The method of constructing agame bird decoy consistin in:

prepar ng a silhouette type having body and wings approximating thecontour of the bird for which the decoy is intended,

mounting a taxidermally treated game bird of the desired type in uprightor feeding position,

taking colored photographs of the mounted game bird, including sidewings, showing the body and wings of the game bird,

applying the colored photographs to the corresponding contour of thebody and wings of the silhouette, and securing them adhesively in place,then trimming off excess photograph material from the silhouette 2. Themethod set forth in claim 1, wherein,

separate colored photographs of the wings of the mount are taken andapplied to the silhouette in either of its upright or feeding position.

3. The method set forth in claim 1, including,

the additional steps, following the colored photographs, of the mount,of producing a four-color separation of each color picture, making twolayouts thereof, one for the upright mount and one for the feedingmount, then printing said layouts, thus enhancing an exactphotoreproduction of the mount.

1. The method of constructing a game bird decoy consisting in: preparinga silhouette type having body and wings approximating the contour of thebird for which the decoy is intended, mounting a taxidermally treatedgame bird of the desired type in upright or feeding position, takingcolored photographs of the mounted game bird, including side wings,showing the body and wings of the game bird, applying the coloredphotographs to the corresponding contour of the body and wings of thesilhouette, and securing them adhesively in place, then trimming offexcess photograph material from the silhouette
 2. The method set forthin claim 1, wherein, separate colored photographs of the wings of themount are taken and applied to the silhouette in either of its uprightor feeding position.
 3. The method set forth in claim 1, including, theadditional steps, following the colored photographs, of the mount, ofproducing a four-color separation of each color picture, making twolayouts thereof, one for the upright mount and one for the feedingmount, then printing said layouts, thus enhancing an exactphotoreproduction of the mount.